There's no doubt that some people after a lot of encounters with non-performing ideas, products, and so-called experts have formed the belief that making money online through freelance writing is absolutely impossible or at best made for some class of special people with over the top IQ. This is far from the truth.

It is actually possible to make money online through freelance writing but to accelerate the process involved, you will have to combine "Blogging & Freelance Writing." Why? Because the combination would provide an avenue for you to earn while simultaneously building your brand as a prerequisite for making more money in the long term.

This will afford you the opportunity to earn while learning.

The List below is an outline of the step-by-step strategy that will be used;

1. Create a custom blog and tweak it for optimal functionality.
2. Decide a likable/profitable Niche to Blog and Freelance about.
3. Write and Publish Unique, Valuable and Informative Contents.
4. Write Guest Posts on Authority and Established Blogs in your Niche.
5. Look for Clients through an aggressive cold pitching campaign.
6. Grow your audience and brand with your blog and improve your writing ability to make more money.

Those are the things or should I say the activities you will be engaged with in the course of positioning yourself well for making money online through Blogging & Freelance Writing. They might look technical or too simple to some but whichever it is for you, all these could be learnt if there's a strong enough reason and motivation for you to achieve your goal of financial freedom.

I will expatiate and dissect the strategy in subsequent posts.

Be ready to be forced to make money.

In my last post, I mentioned the steps to follow to make money through Blogging & Freelance Writing. I will do justice to the outlined strategy in the order they were listed.

1. Create a custom blog and tweak it for optimal functionality.

The very first thing you need to do is having a place online where your content will be published and seen be prospective clients. There are diverse opinions on the right platform for creating a blog.

Whichever platform you use, you MUST go for a custom blog. By custom blog, I mean you should register for a domain name and or host.

A Blogger blog that has an extension of "..com" or Wordpress blog with an extension of "." is not proper because it does not present you as a serious blogger & freelance writer except you want to use your blog for personal purpose like just writing about your hobbies or interests and not really about making money.

The most important thing is to have a blog that is attractive but yet simple and you can have this with a little tweak to your custom "Blogger" blog. Most of the time, visitors to your blog are more concerned about the quality of the content on your blog than the numerous designs and animation you put on the blog but that is not to say the designs and animations are not good extras as long as it does not slow down the loading time for your blog.

In addition to this, you should have a professional Email address e.g your name@yourdomain.com: johndoe@johndoe.com. There are domain registrars that have the feature of professional Email which can be added to your domain purchase just for a few amount of money. I recommend www.namecheap.com.

Almost everybody on this platform (Nairaland) has an idea of how to create a "Blogger.com" blog but for the purpose of this post, permit me to assume that you know nothing about it. Please follow the steps below.

Step 1:
Open a free Gmail account.
Go to gmail.com and sign up for a free account. Fill the registration form and follow the verification process.

Step 2:
After your Gmail account has been verified, go to "www.blogger.com" to create your blog. After you are done with the registration, your blog URL should look like this: "johndoe..com"

Blogger tip: To build a unique brand for yourself, I would suggest you open your Gmail account with a name and "blogger" blog with a name and URL that reflects the kind of Niche you want to your blog to be about and one that fully represents your brand. For example, if you wish to blog about Fashion, your Gmail account can be: "fashionplace@gmail.com" and your "blogger" blog should also be "fashionplace..com". When it's time to buy your domain name, it will make perfect sense for you to go for "fashionplace.com" as this will make things a lot easier for your visitors that come to your blog probably by word-of-mouth and it will also make your brand unique and easy to relate with.

Step 3:
After you are done creating your "blogger" blog, the next step is to customize your blog by removing the "..com" extension behind the URL.

Choose whichever domain registrar you are comfortable with after you must have gone through their various websites to see the features on each of them. There is Godaddy, Namecheap, 1and1 etc. I recommend you go for Namecheap because of the readily available features which require a bit of higher price from their competitors.

After the purchase of your domain name has been confirmed, it's time to redirect your URL with the "..com" extension to your newly purchased domain name e.g from "fashionplace..com" to "www.fashionplace.com".

Open on a new tab on your browser the of the domain account you just purchased, this will make it easier for you to just copy the required settings from your blogger account and paste in the space provided for DNS setting on your domain account.

On the left side of your blogger account click on settings and then basic, on the page it takes you to click on "+Set up a third party URL for your blog" under the publishing section. This takes you to a Google Support guide to redirecting your blog URL to the new one you just purchased that has no "..com" extension.

Follow the guidelines and there you have a blog that looks credible enough to do business and make money.

I will write on how to "Decide a likable/profitable Niche to Blog and Freelance about" in my next post.

Note:

Before I start with the second strategy to implement if you would like to make money through Blogging & Freelance Writing, let me quickly point to the fact that "Blogging & Freelance Writing" is not for everybody. As much as you'd like to make money from it, if you do not possess the skill to read, understand and communicate effectively through writing in English language, I'd advise you to channel your time, energy and resources to other business models that do not require such skills.

Just because some people made money from it does not mean you will make money too if you don't have what it takes and this is not an insult to anybody but just the fact of the case. But the good news is that if you have enough determination, motivation, drive, and willingness to learn as these skill sets are not brought from heaven but also acquired over time, there might be a way as the saying goes; when there's a will there's a way.

Decide a likable/profitable Niche to Blog and Freelance about

Jack of all trade they say, master of none hence the need for you to decide and pick rightly from the onset what you'd like to blog about and which area or related areas your blogging & freelance writing will be focused on. This is called, defining a niche for yourself. No man can be an authority on all the topics in the world and that is where some people miss the mark when it comes to blogging & freelance writing.

When you blog about general topics, you do not really connect with the right audience because people searching for information and your would-be clients have a specific and particular need that they want you to meet. To meet those specific needs, you must have a specific knowledge and solution that is related to their problems.

Decision making can be very tricky sometimes and when it comes to deciding on a niche, it's no different. The following tips should help in reaching a conclusion faster if followed.

Tips:

Choose a niche that you are passionate about

To set yourself on the path to success with blogging & freelance writing, you should choose a niche you are comfortable with and that you have a lot of passion for. If you look deeper into yourself, there are some topics that come easily for you to talk about or write about that other people may consider boring. The key thing here is to find your strength and build on it. With that, some level of success is guaranteed and the passion will take you through the rough patches that might come up on the way.


Consider a niche that has a high potential for making money

As you will later discover, passion is not everything when it comes to choosing a profitable niche. If people do not ask for what you have a passion for, would you rather stick to it or go for what demands are for already? I think the wise thing to do would be to attend to the readily available needs. Ask yourself, would you prefer "unprofitable hobby to boring money"?

Sometimes the situation might warrant you to choose a niche that you are not really conversant with especially when it comes to freelance writing and this often happens when a particular niche is overcrowded or not really paying much. The good thing here is that as long as you have the basic writing skills I earlier mentioned, you can write about almost any topic as there are a lot of available resources for you to learn how to do that online. Any time any day, I'll choose boring money over an unprofitable hobby.

Strike a balance between passion and money

You would also have to find a middle ground between writing for passion and writing for money. The challenges we face daily from striving to become better as a people and to make something worthwhile out of life is a part of our journey that nothing, even money can replace. But at the same time, money sort of put some things if not all in perspective. When money problems are out of the way, one can channel the energy in other areas of life. Love what you do and position yourself to fall in love with what brings you legitimate income.

In my next post, I will write on the need to "Write and Publish Unique, Valuable and Informative Contents" if you want to make money through Blogging & Freelance Writing.

You might have heard it several times that "content is king." Nothing can be truer than this if it is your desire to make money through Blogging & Freelance Writing. It is the central factor that holds all other strategies in place for your success with almost every online business because it is a powerful tool that makes you stand out from the crowd. Without a superb content, it will be hard for you to grab the attention required for a successful campaign.

Write and Publish Unique, Valuable and Informative Contents

This is what I call the UVI formula for a winning content creation. Your content must not only be good but also unique, valuable and Informative. If you can achieve this every time you write and publish a post, Your online success is guaranteed. As simple as it sounds, most bloggers don't hit this mark and this is what has been responsible for the low exposure and their posts not getting traction which in turn affects their income.

An effective communication skill is not negotiable when it comes to blogging and freelance writing. You have to be able to convey your meaning in a clear, simple and concise way to readers. Being an ESL (English as a Second Language) writer is not an excuse and therefore not tenable. Your grammatical structure and spellings must be error free, this also applies to freelance writing because your clients expect nothing but the best from you before they can part with their money.(There are countless resources that can help you with this and they are almost free)

However, there's a place for "writing and publishing a good content" and there's also a place of "right marketing." What's the use for a superb content that people don't get to read?.

Let's explore further on the UVI formula;

Unique Content

There will be no reason for visitors and prospective clients to go for your brand if it's just like the other guy's own. They only come to you when you are different in a good way, which makes sense. Your uniqueness must appear in your writing style, your delivery and how you structure your ideas for better and easy comprehension.

There's actually no one way to do this but to tap into your mind and come up with unique ideas which you will express in your own way. The truth is, many of the things you would write about has already been written by someone else. All you have to do is to understand the topic in question, brood over it and write it in your own words.

There might be a little tweak here and there but you need to transform it and tell it with all the uniqueness in you. This is what happens when different people are called to speak on the same subject, they might even use the same guide but their delivery will never be the same. A perfect example is how pastors preach on the same bible verse but the sermons will be entirely different and unique. Your uniqueness is what makes the difference.

Valuable Content

Churning out valuable contents from time to time will attract a lot of people to your blog and this will also make satisfied clients come back for more of your freelance writing service. Let's face the fact, would anyone be interested in reading a crap content and waste their precious time when there are a lot of similar blogs they can find useful contents? The answer is NO.

Your consistency in producing valuable contents every time you publish on your blog or deliver a writing gig for clients will over time place you on a pedestal and be considered an Expert. This is the best and fastest way for you to generate traffic to your blog and to keep getting jobs from clients who value the quality of your content because it also helps them to generate traffic and make more sales, depending on your writing niche.

A valuable content must have the following qualities:

1. It must introduce a problem, proffer solution to the problem and make good on promises.
2. It must make a complex idea or technique simpler for users
3. It must create a warm feeling of friendship within the readers so much that they think they know you already and that you are specifically
speaking to them to help them achieve something worthwhile.
4. It must by the end of reading be worth the time the readers have invested in reading it.

If you are really serious about making money with blogging & freelance writing, you should study how these bloggers write, learn from them and see how you can also become a better writer with a lot of practice! practice!! practice!!!

Neil Patel of NeilPatel.com
Darren Rowse of Problogger.com
Harsh Agrawal of ShoutMeLoud.com
and our very own Bamidele Onibalusi of WritersInCharge.com

Informative Content

An information content contains a lot of new and refreshing information related to the topic or subject you are writing about. Because of the way systems and ideas evolve in our present world, what worked yesterday might become obsolete today so you have to keep yourself up-to-date and weave the ever changing ideas into your writing.

Whoever knew postal services will someday be relegated to the backseat when it comes to message and information distribution? But it happened and now you can send messages and information to people around the world at the click of the send button.

Always search for and learn from the latest ideas, techniques, tools and new way of doing things. If you do this right, it will reflect in your contents and readers will be more than happy and satisfied to come to you. You will become the go-to guy when they are looking for the right information to become better at what they do and to further their businesses.

If you take note of the tips I've shared with you, then you are setting yourself up for success in blogging & freelance writing. In the next post, I'll be showing you how to, and the need for "Writing Guest Posts on Authority and Established Blogs in your Niche." Why it is essential to your credibility and how it is related to your ability to make money online.

If there's any other tip you want to talk about, let's discuss that in the like and comment section.

Note:

For bloggers that are not beginners following this post and feel they've not seen much probably because they've already been implementing the ideas I have discussed so far in this post. Sit and buckle your seat belt because the next post is going to be as practical as it can ever get and I'm sure you'll gain a few things that will set you on the path to making money online through Blogging and Freelance Writing.

Following with rapt attention. Can I pm you?

blogandfreelanc

It's good to be back here after a long break. I did that to actually prepare a sample for a Guest post that has been written and submitted along with the pitch sent to the Editor of an Authority blog. It's still in the pipeline but I don't think that should halt the flow of this post.

Writing a Guest post on an Authority blog/website in your chosen niche like I told you is one of the best and cost effective ways to get traction and position yourself in front of a targeted large audience. All things being right coupled with the preparation and hard work you have put into writing the post, it might be your break for people to start looking out for more of your writings. This could be leveraged on as a blogger and freelance writer to generate a lot of traffic and attract prospective clients to give you writing jobs.

Writing Guest Posts on Authority and Established Blogs in your Niche

In recent years, Guest-post writing has become important for the different purposes. The two major reasons people write guest posts are
1. To get themselves, businesses and brands before a large and targeted audience that might be interested in a product they sell or in a service they render.
2. To be used as a social proof especially for writers that want potential clients to see them as qualified and capable of delivering on a writing job and for bloggers to generate traffic and get backlinks so as to have a high page ranking on google.

For a Guest-post to qualify for the aforementioned reasons, it should be written and published on a blog/website that has a lot of readership and a history of publishing quality contents.

This makes prospective customers and clients see your business as qualified enough to transact or deal with. One of many advantages this bring is that there’s a part of the post that shows your profile link with which you could be easily contacted and which leads to where more of your contents or products could be seen. This is a huge traffic not paid for as the only investment made was the time taken to research and write the guest post.

How to know which authority Blog to Guest post for

This depends on the industry and niche your business belongs to. It will be more productive to guest-post on a niche-specific platform as this ensures that you reach a larger audience that is already interested in what you write about or in related subject/topics.

For example, a blogger that wants to reach a large and targeted audience with a product that caters for newbie bloggers would be better off writing a guest post on ‘ProBlogger’ than writing one for ‘Forbes’.

Most of the Authority blogs/websites have sections for various categories ranging from Business, Entrepreneurship to News and Entertainment. Writing a guest post on ‘HuffingtonPost’ for example would bring more result for a writer that wants to prove to prospective clients that he/she is capable enough to write well, only that the guest post should be written and published in the right section of the blog.

It’s a good content marketing practice to always write a guest post in the category or section that you want to target for your product(s) or service(s).

How to craft your guest post pitch with the right tone

The very first thing you should do after you have decided to write a guest post on a platform is to go to its website to see the kind of posts that get published there: The quality, the average length of posts, and what the readers of such authority platform say in the comment section so as to know what’s trending and what information they would like to get.

If you have not familiarized yourself with what’s acceptable and what’s not on a platform, you might not get the result you want as your pitch might get rejected if guidelines are not followed.

Most of these established blogs have guidelines on how to go about pitching for a guest post. Some even have forms on their websites for you to fill as applicable.

After you have gotten the necessary information needed to send your pitch, it is also important to write the pitch with the right tone. Following these tips will help you craft an attractive pitch;

1. Personalize your pitch.
2. Introduce yourself, who you are and what you do in not more than three sentences.(Brevity is key here as the editors don’t have much
time on their hands because they are dealing with a lot of entries from other people)
3. You must be able to convince the Editor in-charge of the platform that their audience will benefit from the information contained in your guest
post.
4. Include the title/topic of the Guest post you want to submit with a short introduction( A catchy, attractive and trending topic could be an
added advantage)
5. Include the Sub-headings contained in your post with a short summary of not more than three sentences.
6. Don’t forget to add your belief and hope that their respected and distinguished audience would benefit from your post.
7. End your pitch with an expectation of getting a favorable response from whoever you are sending the pitch to.

Best Days and Hours to send your pitches

Another tip that could also help is knowing the appropriate time to send your pitches, it could increase the chances of your messages being seen and read. Tuesdays - Thursdays before 7.am (Before or over breakfast) and between 10.am - 12.pm (Before or during lunch). They seem to not be under much pressure during these days and hours.

What to do when you don't get answer to your pitches

Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get a response to your pitch. There’s a possibility that the editor is so busy at the time he/she received your message and forgot to get back to you considering the number of emails they get on a daily basis.

When this happens, there’s a sort of formula that has been around for some time called the 3-3-7 formula. If after the first 3 days, you have not heard back, you should send a message as a reminder of the first one you sent.

This should be done after another 3 days and 7 days if you’ve still not gotten a response. After the third reminder, you might as well forget about the guest post and move on. The more you practice, the better you become.

In my next post, I will explain how to "Look for Clients through an aggressive cold pitching campaign".

plz sir, is it necessary to buy hosting after you have bought a domain?

DPlanter:
plz sir, is it necessary to buy hosting after you have bought a domain?

It depends on the platform you want to host your blog/website. If you want to go for a WordPress hosted blog, you must buy a hosting package but you get a free hosting on a Blogger hosted blog.

For more on this, visit
http://www.blogandfreelance.com/2017/06/how-to-create-credible-blog-with-less.html

blogandfreelanc:


It depends on the platform you want to host your blog/website. If you want to go for a WordPress hosted blog, you must buy a hosting package but you get a free hosting on a Blogger hosted blog.

For more on this, visit
http://www.blogandfreelance.com/2017/06/how-to-create-credible-blog-with-less.html

Thanks so much.

In my last post, I shared with you the effectiveness of writing Guest posts on Authority Blogs/websites in your Niche and how to go about it. I hope the information I shared has helped you to get a grasp of the importance of Guest post writing and how to craft a winning Guest post pitch that gets accepted.

In this post, I will show you "How to Look for Clients Through an Aggressive Cold Pitching Campaign".

Getting Clients that pay well regularly can be an uphill task for Freelance Writers. To overcome this, Cold pitching prospective clients is arguably the most effective means of scouting and retaining high paying clients for your service as a freelance writer.

To start with, what is cold pitching? Cold pitching is simply sending out a proposal for you to be hired to people and businesses you do not have a prior connection with, who have not requested for your service and probably have not seen a need for your type of service. Basically, it is sending a pitch to a company to subtly and politely make them see reasons to hire you for a service you provide.

Another point worthy of note here is that cold pitching for clients is a game of numbers. The more prospect you send cold pitches to, the greater the chances of landing clients.

Below are some important factors you must put into consideration when looking for clients through cold pitching.

Research your clients before cold pitching

It's very important that you get to know prospective clients as much as possible before sending them cold pitches. This is necessary because you have to sound as familiar as much as possible in your writing to up your chances of being considered at all as you are sending a pitch to a total stranger and what a better way to come across to them than showing them you have an interest in their businesses.

You can only achieve this by going through their websites to have access to information about them. For a cold pitching campaign to be successful, each pitch must be crafted and tailored to the specific and perceived content needs of a prospective client after you must have done a research on the company's website and have gotten a feel of their contents style, the business goals of the company and probably the kind of projects they are into at the particular time that you think your skill set and service might fit in to.

Who and where to cold pitch for clients

You are free to send your cold pitches to business owners and entrepreneurs in your chosen industry and niche. A free search of companies on the internet could help you with names of companies to send your pitches to. If you are able to get the company's website, a peruse of the information there should be enough to let you know those in charge that you are to send your pitches to.

For a mid-size company, they might have an Editor or Content Manager. In this case, you send your pitch to whoever is in charge of their Content Management. But in a situation where the business is being run by an individual or a sole proprietor, you should send your pitch to the business owner.

Social Media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn could also be an ideal place for you to meet companies and business owners. The advantage this has over content mills like Upwork and Fiverr, for example, is that there is less competition as you are not bidding for gigs and you are not going to be paid peanuts like it's common on those various content mills. You set your rate and you get a decent pay even as a beginner as long as you can write well and satisfy your clients.

The Composition of a Winning Cold pitch that attracts clients

A cold pitch that gets the attention of a prospective client so much that he/she decides to work with you is what I refer to as a winning cold pitch. This kind of pitch must be composed of these key elements;

1. Personalize Your Pitch Opening

Your pitch must be addressed to a person with his/her name attached. This proves you've done your homework well and it also helps in bridging that gap of meeting for the very first time, though in writing.

2. An introduction to who you are and what service(s) you provide

Introduce yourself briefly: Your name, what you do and the niche your service(s) belong.

3. Benefits of hiring you

The main part of a winning cold pitch is convincing the client that they need your service(s) as you present yourself as the best choice for the job you are proposing. You should include what you can do, why they should hire you and why you are different from all other writers in your niche


4. Include Samples of your previous writing that could help convince the prospective client that you could actually write and deliver on the job.

5. Close your Pitch Politely

You should be polite in the tone of your message from the opening to the closing. You do not want to be seen as rude because it's your only opportunity to make a good and lasting impression. Even if your service is not needed at that time, it might later be requested for based on the good impression.

Whatever you write, let it be at the back of your mind that you only have a few seconds to get across your message, so you have to be as brief as possible without missing a bit of what you want to put across to the recipient of your pitch.

Sample of a winning cold pitch to land a client

Hello (Prospective Client's Name),

I am (Your Name), a digital marketing expert and a freelance writer. I write captivating and persuasive contents for businesses and entrepreneurs to further their audience reach and engage their prospective customers. This always leads to increased sales and a good ROI on marketing campaign costs.

Here are a few samples of my writing to help you decide if I'll be a good fit for your contents need.
(Sample 1)
(Sample 2)
(Sample 3)

I value prompt delivery of writing jobs because of the importance of meeting deadlines to business success. In addition to this, I reply emails on time, to meet specific targets or urgent notifications.

I would appreciate you getting back to me if you ever need my service.

Thank you.

(Your Name).

With the information put together in this post, you should have no fear in coming up with a good pitch depending on your niche and start an aggressive cold pitching campaign to land high paying clients. You too can make money with your writing as a freelance writer.

In my next post that will end this series, I'll be showing you how to "Grow your audience and brand with your blog and improve your writing ability to make more money"


To your Success.

Good job. Thanks for sharing, I hope to tweak and implement some ideas shared, I will surely give feedback

Thanks for the appreciation. Would like to hear from you how it all goes. Good luck.

Emmandus:
Good job. Thanks for sharing, I hope to tweak and implement some ideas shared, I will surely give feedback

5 Sure Ways to Establish Yourself as a Profitable Blogger and Freelance Writer


As far as blogging and freelance writing goes, it is important to know that it’s not enough to just be another blogger and freelance writer but a profitable one at that.

Being called a blogger and freelance writer is not what pays the bill but actually making money from this combination of business models does and for this to happen, you need to launch your business on the right foundation and set your business on a path that encourages and attract both personal and business productivity.

With this in mind, I have come up with a practical framework that can help you to achieve more in blogging and freelance writing if you are at a beginner/intermediate level and to nudge you in a direction where you can realign and refocus your strategy for a better result.

Below are 5 of the strategies that make up the framework;

1. Self-Motivation

Does your motivation for completing a task or project always emanate from the inside or you need/crave an external validation?

I would advise you to draw your motivation from the inside and not from external validation.

The motivation derived from the inside contributes more to the self-confidence and trust in your own ability needed for moving towards achieving a goal than waiting for outside influences.

The confidence you have in your ability to get the work done and deliver quality and high valued contents as a blogger and freelance writer goes a long way in your profitability because it puts you in the right mindset.

2. Discipline/Sacrifice

Are you willing to put in more than the average working hours to improve on your craft when starting out? Be willing and ready to put in more than the average working hours in improving your craft at least at the beginning.

As it is most of the time when you are setting out on a new project, so it is with blogging and freelance writing. It requires more time for planning and other related tactics to make sure you’re doing the right things.

Until that time that you develop a system and strategy that would run your business, be disciplined enough to put in more effort and be ready to sacrifice as much as needed resources ( time, money etc.)



3. Permit yourself to fall in love with what you do

Enthusiasm, keen interest, practice and prompt action sometimes win over experience. Don’t wait for years to gather the experience you think you need. Rather, start researching and practicing how to write better and with different types of writing.

Develop yourself daily and keep a tab on your improvement to measure how far you have come. Take action on ideas and tips on time before other things surface and you lose that idea, who knows the action that will give your blogging and freelance writing career a jolt to success?

4. Patience and Calmness

You will need a lot of patience and inner calm in your journey to making blogging and freelance writing profitable for you. You must not get carried away by the noise around you. There’s an information overload out there you must be very careful about.

Not everybody or every material that promises to make your blogging and freelance writing business better and profitable deliver on their promises. So there’s a need for you to observe the following process;

Test: For every idea you come up with or been introduced to and for every advice given to you by any expert, you should carry out a test. Doing this will make it possible for you to see the practical ideas and tactics and you’ll be able to weed out the ones that doesn’t work for you.

Track: You should also take note of the ideas and tactics along the way to enable you to see how far you have come, the ones that are working, how you applied the tactics and all of that.

By keeping track, you will have an idea and a clear understanding of the areas you need to work on and what needs readjustment. For example, you might discover the kind of contents that engage your readers, a marketing that works for you or how prospective clients react to your cold pitches etc.

Change: When you have tested ideas and tactics, kept track of how practical, workable and relevant they are to your blogging and freelance writing business, it’s time to tweak and make the necessary changes based on the feedback you have gathered all these while.

Whether it’s to change the form of your content from long to short or vice versa to better engage readers and drive traffic or to come up with a killer headline or a style that will increase the chances of your cold pitches being read when you send them to prospects.

Improve: All the processes mentioned above will contribute immensely to your success as a blogger and freelance writer because you’ll be able to make informed and data-driven decisions which brings a lot of improvement over time to how profitable your business becomes.

5. Belief in your abilities to succeed

If you don’t believe in your own abilities to succeed at this, maybe you should probably not have started in the first place. It’s a fact that you won’t possess all the skills and experience needed at first but you must believe in your ability to learn what needs to be learnt and to develop yourself.

Those experts that you see making a lot of money from their knowledge and expertise today were all novices at a time but they didn’t let that hold them back.

Believe in your abilities to succeed in blogging and freelance writing. Approach Influencers (for network and connections) in your Industry/Niche and clients/prospects with confident humility.

If you consider and apply the strategies explained above carefully irrespective of your level or the stage you’re at in the business of blogging and freelance writing, I’m sure it won’t take you long to carve a niche for yourself and establish yourself as an expert and a profitable blogger and freelance writer at that.

To your success.

http://www.blogandfreelance.com

5 Sure Ways to Establish Yourself as a Profitable Blogger and Freelance Writer


As far as blogging and freelance writing goes, it is important to know that it’s not enough to just be another blogger and freelance writer but a profitable one at that.

Being called a blogger and freelance writer is not what pays the bill but actually making money from this combination of business models does and for this to happen, you need to launch your business on the right foundation and set your business on a path that encourages and attract both personal and business productivity.

With this in mind, I have come up with a practical framework that can help you to achieve more in blogging and freelance writing if you are at a beginner/intermediate level and to nudge you in a direction where you can realign and refocus your strategy for a better result.

Below are 5 of the strategies that make up the framework;

1. Self-Motivation

Does your motivation for completing a task or project always emanate from the inside or you need/crave an external validation?

I would advise you to draw your motivation from the inside and not from external validation.

The motivation derived from the inside contributes more to the self-confidence and trust in your own ability needed for moving towards achieving a goal than waiting for outside influences.

The confidence you have in your ability to get the work done and deliver quality and high valued contents as a blogger and freelance writer goes a long way in your profitability because it puts you in the right mindset.

2. Discipline/Sacrifice

Are you willing to put in more than the average working hours to improve on your craft when starting out? Be willing and ready to put in more than the average working hours in improving your craft at least at the beginning.

As it is most of the time when you are setting out on a new project, so it is with blogging and freelance writing. It requires more time for planning and other related tactics to make sure you’re doing the right things.

Until that time that you develop a system and strategy that would run your business, be disciplined enough to put in more effort and be ready to sacrifice as much as needed resources ( time, money etc.)



3. Permit yourself to fall in love with what you do

Enthusiasm, keen interest, practice and prompt action sometimes win over experience. Don’t wait for years to gather the experience you think you need. Rather, start researching and practicing how to write better and with different types of writing.

Develop yourself daily and keep a tab on your improvement to measure how far you have come. Take action on ideas and tips on time before other things surface and you lose that idea, who knows the action that will give your blogging and freelance writing career a jolt to success?

4. Patience and Calmness

You will need a lot of patience and inner calm in your journey to making blogging and freelance writing profitable for you. You must not get carried away by the noise around you. There’s an information overload out there you must be very careful about.

Not everybody or every material that promises to make your blogging and freelance writing business better and profitable deliver on their promises. So there’s a need for you to observe the following process;

Test: For every idea you come up with or been introduced to and for every advice given to you by any expert, you should carry out a test. Doing this will make it possible for you to see the practical ideas and tactics and you’ll be able to weed out the ones that doesn’t work for you.

Track: You should also take note of the ideas and tactics along the way to enable you to see how far you have come, the ones that are working, how you applied the tactics and all of that.

By keeping track, you will have an idea and a clear understanding of the areas you need to work on and what needs readjustment. For example, you might discover the kind of contents that engage your readers, a marketing that works for you or how prospective clients react to your cold pitches etc.

Change: When you have tested ideas and tactics, kept track of how practical, workable and relevant they are to your blogging and freelance writing business, it’s time to tweak and make the necessary changes based on the feedback you have gathered all these while.

Whether it’s to change the form of your content from long to short or vice versa to better engage readers and drive traffic or to come up with a killer headline or a style that will increase the chances of your cold pitches being read when you send them to prospects.

Improve: All the processes mentioned above will contribute immensely to your success as a blogger and freelance writer because you’ll be able to make informed and data-driven decisions which brings a lot of improvement over time to how profitable your business becomes.

5. Belief in your abilities to succeed

If you don’t believe in your own abilities to succeed at this, maybe you should probably not have started in the first place. It’s a fact that you won’t possess all the skills and experience needed at first but you must believe in your ability to learn what needs to be learnt and to develop yourself.

Those experts that you see making a lot of money from their knowledge and expertise today were all novices at a time but they didn’t let that hold them back.

Believe in your abilities to succeed in blogging and freelance writing. Approach Influencers (for network and connections) in your Industry/Niche and clients/prospects with confident humility.

If you consider and apply the strategies explained above carefully irrespective of your level or the stage you’re at in the business of blogging and freelance writing, I’m sure it won’t take you long to carve a niche for yourself and establish yourself as an expert and a profitable blogger and freelance writer at that.

To your success.

http://www.blogandfreelance.com

The Right People to Connect With and Send Your Cold-pitches to as a Freelance Writer


To be successful and profitable with freelance writing, there are things you need to get right and one of the important, if not the most important technique you need to get right is knowing how to craft a winning cold-pitch/cold email.


As important as this technique is, if the goal behind it which is, getting your cold-pitches read and responded to is not achieved, it makes the whole process pointless.


At the core of achieving this goal is knowing how to send your cold-pitches to the right or designated people within an organization or a company and getting away with it, if sent to the wrong personnel.


Here are a few important suggestions from tested, tried and practical strategies that will help you get it right with sending your cold pitches, getting it opened and responded to as a freelance writer.


What is a Cold-pitch or Cold-email?
I assume that you already know what a cold-pitch or cold-email is and how important it is to your success and profitability as a freelance writer.


With this understanding, I won’t bore you with the details of what a cold-pitch is but simply put, a cold-pitch is a content of a value proposition made to a prospect in hope that through it, a transaction might take place between the two parties.


The Designated Personnel Within an Organization or a Company

In every organization or company, there are always people designated for each of the tasks involved in running a business and failure to send specific requests or inquiries to the right personnel might affect an expected result.


As a freelance writer, for your cold-pitches to be read and responded to by a company or an organization, it has to be sent to the right people designated or those who are in the capacity to attend to your cold-email.


Depending on your niche/industry, these set of people are always the ones you should send your cold-pitches to except for in a few cases.


- Chief Marketing Officers (CMO)
- Marketing Directors
- Content Marketing Directors
- Digital Marketing Directors
- Social Media Managers
- CEO/Founders
- Online Marketing Managers
- Digital Marketing Managers


Where to Find Prospects That are Likely to Become High-paying Clients


1. Job boards

A Job board like problogger.com/jobs is a good place to look for potential clients to cold-pitch. It’s even better than you think because you already know that job posters are in need of a writing service they’re willing to pay for.


To maximize this, you’d have to do a thorough search of the job poster’s website. You must know all there is to know about the company and have an idea of the kinds of content they have on their websites. This knowledge, coupled with the writing service they’re in need of is another advantage you have.


Before you send your cold-pitches to job posters like this, you should come up with a content similar to what they’re in need of as posted and post the article on your blog if you have one, or on LinkedIn Pulse.


By sending a cold-pitch like this, you’re increasing your chances of being chosen while also bypassing the competition from other writers that would contact them through the job boards.


In your cold-pitch, make sure you include the link to your prepared and posted article. I wish you good luck on this.

2. Find Leads on Elucify.com

You could also get warm leads on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Search for their email addresses with tools like; Findthat.email, Violanobert.com, Recruitin.net, Hunter.io etc.



How to Get Away With Sending Your Cold-pitches to the Wrong Personnel

There are times you’d want to reach out to prospective clients but can’t determine the right recipients of your cold-pitches probably because of the size of the company or undefined positions.


This might make your cold-pitches end up in the wrong inbox or with the wrong person. If it’s still within the same organization or a company, all you need do is make a request at the end of your cold-pitch, for the message to be forwarded to the appropriate person within the establishment.


You should only do this if you’re not sure you’re sending your pitch to the appropriate person. Ask humbly and nicely.


This should not be a practice for you when sending your cold-pitches to prospects. It should be a last resort after you’ve exhausted all the available avenue to getting the right person’s contact within an organization or a company.


A Simple Guide for Monitoring The Effectiveness of Your Cold-pitches and your Freelance Writing Business

After you must have gone through the rigor of finding out prospects, searching for what their businesses entail and getting hold of their contacts for your cold-pitches to be sent to, it might still be unproductive and end up being a futile exercise if you don’t follow up on your prospects with respect to your cold-pitches.


With all the busyness in the daily activities of business people which your prospects are not excluded from, there are so much happening in a day that might stand in the way of you getting a response the very first time from prospects.


One major reason being the fact that, an average busy person receives on the average 121 emails in a day as described in a statistics on LifeWire and as a result of this, your sent cold-pitches might end up being buried in a heap of all these emails.


Sometimes, your cold-emails are seen by prospects which they might actually note and plan to respond to but eventually forget to. It now becomes your responsibility to remind them periodically, of your value propositions.


There’s a popular formula for doing a follow-up on prospects you’ve already sent your cold-pitches to but you’ve not received responses from.


It’s a 3-7-7 formula which means that you send a reminder as regards your cold-pitches exactly 3 days, from the day you send the original cold-pitches, a second reminder exactly 7 days from the first reminder and a third reminder exactly 7 days from the second reminder.


This makes the life-cycle of a cold-pitch 17 days though it’s not cast in stone. You can re-adjust the follow-up days or lengthen it if you feel there’s a ray of hope and the prospects might be persuaded to becoming clients but are still taking their time to make a decision.


You just have to be very careful and not sound pushy in any way.


Here is a simple table for monitoring Prospects’ Follow-up and Sent cold-pitches for smooth and seamless running as a freelance writer. I hope it helps.


Source: http://www.blogandfreelance.com